This is a shooting jacket. You can button the flaps open so you can access fresh shells quickly when you are reloading. (Note the action back as well.) Unless you are visiting a grouse moor -- or at least walking the English countryside -- a jacket like this is pretty close to costume . . . and I understand grouse moors are in short supply in Northern California.

Quote:

Originally Posted by comrade

It is true that this may be the only "trad" game in town in the Bay Area, but compared to the Andover Shop, where I've shopped, and O'Connells in Buffalo, whose website I've perused, there are very few interestsing fabrics.

While prices at CCC might not be cheap, I think that, as Gus suggests, certain compromises need to be made in order to be a viable retail business in the age of brick and mortars competing side by side with online retailers. With that as the harsh reality, the existence alone of a shop like CCC is a breath of fresh air, and a privilege for people who have the option of seeing, feeling, and trying on a lot of these things which in other locales they could never do. For this, I think, we ought to just be glad that CCC is able to exist at all, and take pleasure in our visits there. If things are priced beyond one's means at CCC (as they are for me, for instance) that doesn't mean we should bemoan its existence. I freely admit that if they sold things at the prices I'm willing to pay, they'd go out of business, and that would be a tragedy. But, as Gus pointed out too, business was bustling while we were there, and it was a Wednesday afternoon, so in the meantime I'll just take great joy in the visits I get to make to the shop.

While prices at CCC might not be cheap, I think that, as Gus suggests, certain compromises need to be made in order to be a viable retail business in the age of brick and mortars competing side by side with online retailers. With that as the harsh reality, the existence alone of a shop like CCC is a breath of fresh air, and a privilege for people who have the option of seeing, feeling, and trying on a lot of these things which in other locales they could never do. For this, I think, we ought to just be glad that CCC is able to exist at all, and take pleasure in our visits there. If things are priced beyond one's means at CCC (as they are for me, for instance) that doesn't mean we should bemoan its existence. I freely admit that if they sold things at the prices I'm willing to pay, they'd go out of business, and that would be a tragedy. But, as Gus pointed out too, business was bustling while we were there, and it was a Wednesday afternoon, so in the meantime I'll just take great joy in the visits I get to make to the shop.

Thank you for that -- it's good to know that brick and mortar shops still have a future, and that people enjoy visiting such shops for the experience if not to buy anything.

Btw, I don't bemoan CCC's existence or the existence of other retailers that charge higher than normal prices, and I most definitely hope that others do not either. The existence of such traditional haberdasheries are a rarity and worth preserving.

This is a shooting jacket. You can button the flaps open so you can access fresh shells quickly when you are reloading. (Note the action back as well.) Unless you are visiting a grouse moor -- or at least walking the English countryside -- a jacket like this is pretty close to costume . . . and I understand grouse moors are in short supply in Northern California.

I've been in shooting parties in Northern California where men wore these. I've also seen similar jackets at Ralph Lauren, Holland & Holland and Beretta in previous seasons.

This is a shooting jacket. You can button the flaps open so you can access fresh shells quickly when you are reloading. (Note the action back as well.) Unless you are visiting a grouse moor -- or at least walking the English countryside -- a jacket like this is pretty close to costume . . . and I understand grouse moors are in short supply in Northern California.
But the Andover shop is a dingy den of scumbags.

Andover Shop- dingy den of scumbags? Yes, that is the description that Vox offered some years ago.
When I visited the Cambridge shop they trreated my like royalty despite the fact that I was wearing
Etro linen jeans. But that is my usual experience in men's shops. One of the advantages of gray hair,
I guess.

When I lived in Ecuador such hats came at numerous price/quality points.
I got one in an open air market for less than a dollar. I still have it decades
later. For a discussion of "Panama Hats" this website is instrcutive:

That said a country coat like that in the context of where anything close to CBD is worn in the City makes no sense. It would basically be a costume.

I pass by Cable Car Clothiers often. And it looks like a costume shop. Everyone who works there looks like they're wearing a costume as opposed to a rational outfit. It's really rather jarring.

Their prices have also always been high for what they have. And before the grandson took over, you could forgive the dottering sales staff. Now you've got oblivious kids, and my understanding is that the grandson himself is a vulgarian who has been chasing the old employees out. Rather bad all around.

I love going to CCC, in some ways it reminds me of going to the J. Press in New Haven with my dad when I was a lad.

BTW I've had my hair cut by Nicky several times. He gives an excellent cut, and spends the entire time telling you how great he is, and what a rough deal he's getting from his current employer. This is his third location in as many years, which is probably an indication of something.